U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, has unveiled a bill to update the Continuous Diagnostics Mitigation (CDM) program at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“CDM is a critical component of our national cybersecurity strategy,” Rep. Ratcliffe said on July 18 in introducing the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act, H.R. 6443.
The congressman added that support for DHS Under Secretary Christopher Krebs’ “effective deployment and ongoing improvement of CDM” is a top priority for his subcommittee.
The proposed bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the DHS Secretary to establish a continuous diagnostics and mitigation program at the department, and would require that DHS develop policies and procedures for reporting systemic cybersecurity risks and potential incidents based on data collected under CDM, according to a draft of the legislation.
Rep. Ratcliffe’s measure also would require regular improvements to CDM to help ensure that CDM evolves along with the changing cyber threat landscape.
“Our goal with this new legislation is to help boost the long-term success of the CDM program by ensuring it keeps pace with the cutting-edge capabilities in the private sector,” the congressman said. “We’re also safeguarding agencies from getting stuck with technologies that will soon become outdated or unsupported by their vendors.”
The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by U.S. Reps. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), John Katko (R-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
Cybersecurity is national security, said Ratcliffe, “and that means we’ve got to ensure we’re addressing the dangers at our digital borders through risk-based, cost-effective strategies enabled by programs like CDM.”
Rep. Ratcliffe added that he’s hopeful for “strong support” of the bill.